A bizarre and macabre custom

This somewhat bizarre and rather terrifying custom was practiced in several parts of the county, but I have no information about the date of its decline.

It was based on the belief that if a person sat and watched the porch of the parish church on the Eve of St Mark, the spectral figures of those who would die in the forthcoming year would appear at midnight.

This odd practice was governed by a few rules. One stipulated that if anyone began this practice, it must be continued without a break until the end of their own life.

Another rule was that the watcher must never fall asleep during the watching period - if they did, they may never awake and would certainly see themselves in spectral form.

Inevitably, there were stories of dedicated porch watchers seeing themselves in the spectral procession.

One such man was James Haw from Burneston, near Bedale, and it is said he watched his local church porch every year of his life until he saw himself in the ghostly parade. And he died that same year.

A very similar practice was known as chaff riddling and this also occurred on the Eve of St Mark. Those taking part sat near the door of a barn and they had to riddle chaff.

It was thought that at midnight, while the chaff was being riddled, the figures of those who would die in the coming year would walk past.

There is one story of such a session at Malton, where a woman watcher saw her own coffin being carried past the barn. She died within the year.

I believe similar watching customs were carried out at some crossroads within this region, but I have no details.

Today, April 25, is therefore the feast day of St Mark. Several saints bear the name of Mark, but the saint whose feast we celebrate is the famous evangelist and author of the gospel which bears his name.

It is thought Mark wrote his famous gospel while working with St Peter in Rome. The ruins of the first-century house in which he lived while writing his gospel are beneath the church of St Pudentiana in Rome.

Some time afterwards, Mark went to Alexandria to establish the church and later became its first bishop. After 12 years working there, he was martyred in the reign of the Emperor Trajan, having been accused of sorcery, and his remains were buried in Alexandria.

Later, however, his relics were removed in AD 829 and taken to Venice, where they were buried beneath the high altar in the Catholic church of San Marco (St Mark). This church was built especially to house the relics.

I have received several calls and letters about birds this week. They are always a fascinating topic and it seems more and more people are establishing feeding stations in their gardens.

This provides them with a very close-up view of some of our most popular birds, the birds themselves apparently becoming more accustomed to the presence of humans.

Two readers, one from Eskdale and the other from Ryedale, have reported great spotted woodpeckers among their garden visitors.

In both cases, the woodpeckers seemed to ignore other feeders in nearby gardens, apparently wishing only to patronise a particular one.

Perhaps this has something to do with the birds' territorial boundaries? They mark their boundaries by hammering on trees or telegraph poles, this distinctive noise being a rapid series of blows made with the beak, something like eight or ten rattles per second.

The great spotted is the most numerous of our woodpeckers and is readily identifiable due to its black and white plumage, which is marked with red on the nape of the neck and beneath the tail.

It also has very distinctive white shoulders and is about nine inches long, slightly larger than a starling.

Its relation is the lesser spotted woodpecker, which is very similar in colouring, but has a red crown to its head and is less than six inches long, being about the size of a house sparrow.

The lesser spotted is very shy and seldom seen, and is not as numerous as its larger cousin.

Our largest is the green woodpecker, a colourful bird with green and yellow plumage, black wing tips, a black tip to its tail and a striking red cap and cheeks.

In some parts of our region it is known as the green popinjay or the yaffle, the latter name arising from its distinctive laugh-like call.

There is a fourth member of the woodpecker family which is rarely seen. It is a summer visitor which might occasionally be encountered in the south or south-east of England.

This is the curious wryneck, whose plumage is a mottled grey and brown with touches of tan about the neck and wings.

The name comes from the bird's curious habit of twisting its neck, either when frightened or when courting.

If the bird is suddenly startled, it might drop its head to give the impression its neck has been broken.

Another correspondent rang from Aldbrough St John, between Richmond and Darlington, to say she noticed a baby robin in her garden as early as April 7.

It was being fed by its parents and she wonders if this was an unusually early time to rear a brood.

It must be said that February and March this year were unusually warm and sunny and this might have encouraged some birds to breed earlier than normal.

Robins can begin their breeding as early as March in the south of England, but this would normally be later in the north, even as late as June.

In contemplating this sighting, of course, we must allow time for the nest to be built, the eggs to be hatched and the young to leave the nest, so it does seem that the Aldbrough St John robin was indeed a very early bird.

Another reader asks if I know what type of bird rejoices under the name of blue rock. I believe this is an old dialect name for the stock dove, although in some areas the same name was also applied to the rock dove.

There has often been confusion between a rock dove and a stock dove. The two species are very similar, each being a slate blue colour, but the rock dove is the rarer of the two and can be distinguished by its white rump.

The stock dove, a smaller version of the wood pigeon and lacking the latter's white neck patch and wing markings, can be found in most UK areas.

The rock dove, on the other hand, is more likely to be seen in Ireland or the north-west of Scotland.

It does seem, however, that our forefathers could not easily distinguish one from the other, and therefore called both of them blue rocks.

Incidentally, I believe many of our domestic pigeons, particularly those found in town and city parks and places like Trafalgar Square, are descended from the rock dove.

Another reader, living near Yarm, has written to say that he was able to identify a slow worm thanks to notes in this column last summer (D&S, Aug 30).

With his grandchildren, he was enjoying an outing to the Sheepwash, near Osmotherley, when they spotted what they thought was a snake.

Without the distinctive markings of an adder (our only poisonous snake), my correspondent was able to consult my notes to determine that it was not a snake, but that legless lizard known as the slow worm.

His granddaughter wrote up the experience in her school notes and my correspondent has produced a whimsical tale suggesting the slow worm really gets its name from Slough!

Oddly enough, the slough (sluff in Yorkshire dialect) is the name given to skin which is cast by snakes...and slow worms!

And finally, another reader has sent the following verse written by a farmer: "When your land is office planned, and fed with streams of ink, and ploughed by men with fountain pen, what shall we eat and drink?